Courses

Equipment Improvement Teams (EITs) are four-day or five-day hands-on workshops where operators and mechanics learn better ways to operate and service their equipment. This is accomplished through CLAIRE (Cleaning, Lubricating, Adjusting, Inspecting, Repairing, and Eliminating). The course also covers teaming, development of standards, creation or refinement of Preventative Maintenance procedures (PMs), equipment upkeep, TPR communications, and restoration to an “as designed” condition.

This is a 2 or 3-day workshop that covers the core concepts involved with this crucial maintenance process. The training program delves into the everyday role and responsibilities for Planning and Scheduling. Day 1 teaches why P&S is beneficial, what is planning, what is scheduling, the duties of each, and how P&S affects wrench time. Day 2 involves planning, explaining the identification of work requests, work orders, kitting, and prioritizing work. Planning work with site visits and creating Job Plans is examined. Day 3 covers proposing, approving, publicizing, and managing the backlog of the schedule. Training on executing the schedule and closing out the schedule. The importance of receiving feedback to implement improvements and revisions is also included. Numerous written and hands-on exercises are utilized. A condensed 2-day version is available.

Total Process Reliability (TPR) is the next generation total productive maintenance (TPM). This evolution can be seen in its use of more contemporary tools. Among these tools are Lean Manufacturing concepts, Six Sigma elements, Theory of Constraints and Breakthrough Strategy. Consequently, TPR moves its effectiveness far beyond the limited focus of TPM on equipment uptime and availability. As a result, greater benefits can be seen in situations where equipment needs were non-existent or improvements were not cost-justified. Ultimately, TPR is a process to improve equipment efficiency by enrolling the entire organization in asset management. This is far superior to a traditional maintenance approach where the maintenance department or service personnel shoulder the entire burden.

We can facilitate a retreat to develop an organizations strategic plan using Harvard’s Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach used by over 50% large US firms. This includes the development or refinement of a vision, mission, goals, core principles, key performance indicators, initiatives for implementation, and an implementation plan. A unique planning process used to develop a comprehensive action plan and tactical implementation steps. Individual steps are listed, resources identified and dates agreed upon. Pilot areas are also selected. Balanced Scorecards guide the strategy and a Dashboard to track progress. A process for communicating changes is also developed. Part of this step also includes setting up benchmark visits to study exemplary performance at other locations.

Accelerated FMEA is a means to identify failure modes, their causes, and effects. It uses a numerical value to rate the risk for problematic components to help identify strategies to either mitigate or detect to reduce failure rates. This process is used extensively by NASA, Dept. of Defense, automotive manufacturing, aviation and high tech manufacturing to reduce failure rates. Accelerated FMEA was developed by TBR Strategies to expedite a normally long and labor intensive process and can reduce the FMEA development time.

This 4 or 8-hour training covers reducing risk and reliability. Topics explored are: What is FMEA, evolution of maintenance practices, FMEA history, what FMEA will do for you, Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), cost comparisons, facts about PM, Inspections, why FMEA/FMECA is important, how to use an FMEA, various forms of FMEA, important definitions of FMEA, occurrence, severity, detection, Risk Priority Number (RPN), various examples of FMEA, FMEA process, FMEA checklist, FMEA tools, FMEA tips, why some FMEA’s fail, and risk analysis. There are 2 exercises in this module to set FMEA ratings and do an actual FMEA.

MRO is a 3-day course which goes in full detail of Maintenance, Repair, and Operating inventory management.

Day 1 consists of: types of inventory, storerooms, inventory management, parts criticality, VED (Vital, Essential, Desirable) approach, examining alternative stocking, storeroom activities, storeroom layouts, stocking basics, enforcing security, storeroom procedures, examples of World Class storerooms, parts numbering, intelligent numbers, storeroom accuracy, carrying cost case study, repetitive items, critical spare types, maintaining an accurate inventory, best practices, and storeroom challenges.

Day 2 includes: Stockroom basics exercise, effective inventory management, relevant inventory costs, carrying costs, reorder points, safety stock, service level, ABC analysis, an ABC analysis exercise, how to cycle count, EOQ (Economic Order Quantity), stock control, return for credit control, visual controls, inventory turnover, and inventory accuracy.

Day 3 concludes with: the supply chain, role of purchasing, supply chain management, cost of a PO (Purchase Order), the four standards of buyers, unethical behavior, Kraljic supply Matrix, purchasing cycle, purchasing inputs/outputs, supplier/vendor management, RFP (Request for Proposal), vendor review exercise, policies and procedures, RACI charts, steps for procedures, and deployment model. Numerous videos and exercises are used to further engage the trainee.

A 4-hour training session that introduces inventory control/management. We examine why inventory costs are so high and the realities of not controlling our inventory. Other topics include: Reasons for inventory control, carrying costs, supply and demand, how to begin your control, maximum inventory, minimum inventory, ABC classification, Pareto’s Law (80/20), cycle counting, how to cycle count, and EOQ (Economic Order Quantity). Other aspects include: calculating EOQ, balancing carrying vs. ordering costs, factors of a successful inventory control system, visual controls, and examples of successful inventory management.

How can we manage our equipment cost better? We answer this question and more by covering: Equipment optimization challenges, steps for equipment optimization, definition and purpose of optimization and utilization as well as ROCE, and RONA. Other aspects include establishing a plan to ‘right size’ the fleet, optimizing fleet assets, disposal consideration, examining utilization, looking at repair costs, life cycle costs, life cycle analysis, life cycle management, the 5 life cycle phases. In addition, we cover how to increase utilization, getting the highest residual value, reducing operating costs, lowering PM costs, using standards and auditing, and reducing CM costs.

OEE training is an overview of maximizing the performance of equipment by minimizing losses of equipment and solving the problems by teams. We discuss the steps of improvement with OEE by: Defining losses, quantifying losses, analyzing losses, generating counter-measures, implementation, and following up. An exercise is performed in how to calculate OEE.

This is a 2 or 3-day workshop that covers the core concepts involved with this crucial maintenance process. The training program delves into the everyday role and responsibilities for Planning and Scheduling. Day 1 teaches why P&S is beneficial, what is planning, what is scheduling, the duties of each, and how P&S affects wrench time. Day 2 involves planning, explaining the identification of work requests, work orders, kitting, and prioritizing work. Planning work with site visits and creating Job Plans is examined. Day 3 covers proposing, approving, publicizing, and managing the backlog of the schedule. Training on executing the schedule and closing out the schedule. The importance of receiving feedback to implement improvements and revisions is also included. Numerous written and hands-on exercises are utilized. A condensed 2-day version is available.

This 3-hour program provides an overview to supervisors and managers as to the value and means of how to support maintenance planning and scheduling processes. Participants learn about symptoms of a broken planning process, benefits of good planning and scheduling, savings and contributions to the bottom line, roles, responsibilities, duties of a planner, maintenance reporting, net capacity, and backlog.